Format: CD/DVD-A
Artist: King Crimson
CatNo: KCSP8
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CD Discipline King Crimson Surround DVD-A
The seventh release in the King Crimson 40th Anniversary series.
 
On its release in 1981, 'Discipline' represented a startling reinvention for this most restless of bands.
 
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When Robert Fripp declared in 1974 that King Crimson had "ceased to exist" nobody could have foreseen that they would break their silence seven years later with an album that perhaps had more in common with the then current post-punk new wave than the band's progressive rock past. 
 
Released in 1981, 'Discipline' was a startling reinvention with a new line-up performing radically different material that managed to delight fans, confound critics and pick up a substantial new audience along the way.
 
30 years on, 'Discipline' remains one of the key albums of the early 1980s and one of the most popular and influential in King Crimson's catalogue. 
 
As different from the 1970s King Crimson, as the 1970s line-ups had been from the 1960s band, the new quartet of Robert Fripp, Bill Bruford,  Adrian Belew (ex-Zappa, Bowie, Talking Heads) and Tony Levin (Peter Gabriel), rapidly established itself as a force on the live circuit. 
 
The longer songs of the 1960s and early 1970s and the extended improvisations of the live performances from the earlier touring bands were replaced with a series of  short taut songs imbued with a minimalist aesthetic that featured complex interwoven guitar lines, (coined 'rock gamelan') Belew's distinctive vocals, Bruford's new armoury of electronic percussion and Levin's fluid bass and Chapman stick lines.
 
Songs written for the album became firm fixtures in the band's repertoire and the stature and influence of the material has grown over the years. 'Matte Kudasai' for example, has become something of a modern standard recorded by jazz vocalist Kurt Elling last year and performed live recently by K.D. Lang. 
 
The album charted on release in many countries - including the UK and USA - while the touring schedule took the band through Europe, the US and Japan in its first year of activity. By the end of 1981 Crimson was, once again, viewed as one of rock music's premier outfits. 
 
King Crimson had also achieved a rare feat for a rock group by becoming one of the very few acts to release a classic album in three separate decades. From 'In the Court of the Crimson King' in 1969, via 'Red' in 1974 to 'Discipline' in 1981, with differing line-ups and radically different sounds the band's reputation for innovation and progression (in the best sense of the word) was unassailable.
 
As with other albums in the King Crimson CD/DVD-A series, the stereo CD features a new stereo mix by Robert Fripp and Steven Wilson, while the DVD-A features 5.1 mixes of the album by Steven Wilson, high resolution stereo mixes of the original and new stereo mixes, a rough mix of the album presented in its first intended running order,video footage from The Old Grey Whistle Test TV show and further audio extras and rarities.
CD:
 
1. Elephant Talk
2. Frame by Frame
3. Matte Kudasai
4. Indiscipline
5. Thela Hun Gingeet
6. The Sheltering Sky
7. Discipline
 
Bonus tracks:
 
Alt. mixes of The Sheltering Sky & Thela Hun Ginjeet mixed by Steven Wilson.
 
DVD-A:
 
Discipline 
- 5.1 Lossless Surround Sound mix
- DTS 5.1 Surround Sound mix
- Album new mix - High Resolution Stereo
- Album original mix - High Resolution Stereo
- Rough mixes of the album in its first intended running order
 
Old Grey Whistle Test videos 
 
+ further audio extras
 
Adrian Belew: Guitar, lead vocal 
Robert Fripp: Guitar & devices   
Tony Levin: Stick, bass guitar, support vocal           
Bill Bruford: Batterie